Harry Potter author JK Rowling has won permission to build two 40ft high
treehouses featuring secret tunnels and turrets in her garden, despite
protests from local residents.

The Harry Potter author JK Rowling has won permission to build two luxurious Hogwarts-style tree houses in her garden, despite protests from local residents.

The writer applied to have the 40ft high structures erected, at an estimated cost of £250,000, as part of a programme of major renovations at her home in Edinburgh.

The two-storey structures on stilts are for her nine-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter and feature secret tunnels, a rope bridge and turreted roofs.

Residents living nearby lodged objections with Edinburgh City Council, claiming the size of the tree houses meant they would be seen from the road and would blight the conservation area.

Dr Patricia Eason, secretary of the Cramond and Barnton community council, said in a letter that it had serious concerns, adding: “Presently the tree house development will be screened from the roadway by the line of tall conifer trees.

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"That is except for the view now apparent through the gap just formed by the applicant, where some three or four trees have been removed.

"Our concern is without this high and substantial screening belt of conifers, the entrance to the conservation area would be marked by this massive and very high tree house development and this would be quite out of character with the area and unacceptable."

Ms Rowling's neighbour Tom Borthwick, 66, also raised concerns about the size and safety of the tree houses and sought assurances they could not be viewed from outside the property.

However, planning officials approved the application and dismissed suggestions that the buildings would have an adverse impact on the conservation area.

The tree houses will be linked by a rope bridge, with a trap door and fireman’s pole offering a quick escape from one, and a spiral staircase or steel slide from the other.

Drawings show one of the houses features a perch for what appears to be an owl, and a "nature box" built into the cedar shingles on the roof for birds to nest in.

They are to be built using sustainable timber by the tree house specialist Blue Forest, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

Last year, the multi-millionaire author was granted planning permission to knock down a £1million 1970s style house she bought next door to her own home to allow her to enlarge the garden.

Ms Rowling, 46, bought her 17th century mansion for just over £2million, two and a half years ago, and lives there with her husband Dr Neil Murray, their two young children and her 19 year old daughter, Jessica, from her first marriage.

The application did not go before councillors on the planning committee because less than six objections were received.